Canobie Parking Expansion Approved; Police Back Proposal

A parking expansion plan at Canobie Lake Park that hopes to alleviate traffic concerns on North Policy Street received unanimous approval from town planners on Tuesday night.

The plan calls for 350 additional parking spaces to be constructed at the southeast corner of the park. According to project engineer George Fredette, new spaces will be constructed as "Lot F," which will require tearing down two vacant houses in the area.

Fredette said that when complete, the park will feature 2,577 available spaces to accommodate both patrons and employees.

"This plan, and the site development proposal before you tonight is a benefit to the park," said Fredette. "It’s beneficial to the North policy street community and it’s beneficial to the overall traffic management plan and the local road network."

Salem Deputy Police Chief Shawn Patten said that the project improves matters for his department dramatically, especially since it will reduce the need for off-site parking, a strategy the park currently employs between two and six times per year.

"I think it's preferable for us to get these cars into the property and not deal with two separate parking lots (and) additional pedestrian traffic which presents on some levels a safety hazard," he said.

Patten added that the project makes it so that his department has a lot less worries given that the two vacant homes have both been burglarized over the past year.

Fredette said that the park has a need for more employees, security officers, parking lot attendants, custodial staff and ride attendants, all of whom will be accommodated by the additional spaces.

He added that the park is trying to meet a parking demand that has grown.

"When I grew up we had one family car... nobody has just one family car anymore," said Fredette."

The parking proposal is taking place in the residential district. It is the first parking expansion proposed at the facility since 2007.

North Policy Street resident Gene Bryant, who said he was on the board to listen to that previous proposal, spoke out against the expansion.

While he praised the park's longevity against some of the giants of the amusement park industry, he said that some alternative needs to be considered for the traffic issue.

"The problem is again, we find ourselves faced with the only complaint I have is that they don't take the traffic seriously," said Bryant.

He said that for six months out of the year, what was once a prominent streetin Salem becomes a parking lot.

Jeffrey Dirk, a traffic engineer with Vanasse and Associates, Inc, said that they are hoping the project will alleviate traffic that is backing up down North Policy Street to Pelham Road and eventually the Interstate 93 ramps.

A variance to allow the proposal to take place was previously granted by the Salem Zoning Board of Adjustment. As a condition of the approval.